


Freezing

by ab2fsycho



Series: Hold My Tea and Watch This [6]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Arguing, Jack is a Little Shit, M/M, why can't we be friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-09
Packaged: 2017-12-14 10:59:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/836157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having both Bunny and Pitch angry with you can become quite a pickle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Freezing

**Author's Note:**

> It was requested that I do a thing with a blizzard. So I did a thing, and it got out of control. Much like a blizzard. Hope you like.

Jack was tired. June was the start of the extremely boring months for him, and he couldn’t help but long for a place to rest. He smirked at himself; maybe he ought to try for Pitch’s lair after all. Pitch currently wasn’t happy with him, but maybe he’d be in a better mood if Jack adhered to at least one of his demands. It had been two days since he’d last seen Pitch, and he’d been quite busy since that meeting. Jack had wanted to teach Pitch a lesson for attacking Bunny, and had also wanted him to stop twitching. The wound Bunny had given Pitch wasn’t going to heal if Pitch continued roaming dramatically about his lair plotting another attack. Jack also couldn’t afford to have Pitch interfere with his work.

So what was the most logical thing for Jack to do to the Nightmare King? Trap him in his lair. Specifically, freeze him under his own bed. He promised the Boogeyman that if he managed to escape before the week was up that he could kidnap Jack for a month. It was summer after all. The world could do with the disappearance of a winter spirit. And if Pitch managed to escape the fortified ice walls Jack had constructed before then, he would be impressed.

So when a pair of hands grabbed his ankles after only two days of encasement, Jack knew they couldn’t be Pitch’s. His suspicions were confirmed when he was jerked screaming down a grassy tunnel, tumbling and sliding until he landed in the Warren. Usually, he would’ve landed on a grassy knoll or some springtime looking space surrounded by blindingly bright colors. This time, however, he landed in a pile of wet snow.

“What is this?!” an infuriated voice that could only be the kangaroo’s shouted at Jack. “What have you done to my Warren?!”

“What makes you think it was me?” Jack asked, a sly grin spreading across his face as he surveyed what was, in fact, his handiwork. The bright colors of Bunny’s home were muted by a foot of snow.

“Don’t play dumb with me, you bloody show-off! I know you did this, and I’d like to know how you managed to get past both meself and my defenses.”

Jack shrugged, folding his arms. May as well admit to his crime. “Getting past your sentinels was easy. Getting you distracted enough, not so much. But I did it.” The rabbit bristled at his words, clenching his fists as Jack continued to speak. “And I’d like you to know how ridiculous your climate control is because it took entirely too much energy to get a foot of snow—.”

Jack was interrupted by Bunny tackling him to the ground, the only sound escaping his mouth being a loud OOF. His head slammed into the dirt as Bunny sat on his middle, keeping him on the ground. Two paws yanked him up by the shirt collar so that he was nose to nose with the rabbit. “Do you have any idea how far back this could set me in my work?” Bunny growled.

“Dude, your whiskers are tickling—.”

“I can’t find any of the eggs I’ve been working on! If they’ve been broken—.”

“They’re not. I hid them.” Bunny snarled, flinging Jack back onto his back. The younger Guardian hit his head again, scrunching his face in hopes of removing the sensation of Bunny’s whiskers tickling his cheeks. Before he knew it, he’d been punched in the jaw. A cold lump set in his chest, coiling with his anger. Having hit his head a third time, he was now officially pissed off. “Okay,” he said, shoving the rabbit off of him with what little strength he had, “first of all, nothing in your place is harmed. The snow is melting already.” He kicked some of the wet, thinning layer at the rabbit. “Second of all, you’ve got about nine months before Easter, and if need be I’ll help you meet your quota when crunch time rolls around. Done it before, in case you don’t remember. Third of all, you punching me in the face is what started this whole thing!” He pointed at his cheek for emphasis.

“It’s not my fault your shady boyfriend attacked me!”

“No, it’s not. And I’ve already taken care of him. This is payback for you slicing him open. I don’t see a single scratch on you!”

“He attacked me. In my home!”

“Again, you also punched him in his face.”

“Yeah, because . . . wait, what?” 

The baffled look on Bunny’s face almost made Jack crack a smile, but he was simply too annoyed. “Don’t ask. Both of you need to stop treating me like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Bunny jabbed a finger into Jack’s chest as he said, “From the sound of it, you don’t. It seems like you need some reminding too, mate. Pitch is our enemy!”

“He’s not my enemy. He saved my life—.”

“He also tried killing ya. Twice, at least. Remember last Easter? If not for the Guardians, you wouldn’t even have a head right now!”

“Is that what you said to him?”

“What?”

“You said something to him that made him come back to his lair acting weird as hell. What did you say to him?”

“What’s the matter, did the two of you have a little lover’s quarrel or something?” Bunny and Jack glared at each other for a moment. Then Bunny’s eyes narrowed further. “Did he hurt y—?”

“What did you tell him?!” Jack swung his staff angrily, putting Bunny even more on edge.

“I did exactly what I’ve been trying to do with you! I reminded him that you were the one who tilted the balance in our favor when we battled with him. Without you, the Guardians could’ve lost all their power. Maybe even their lives. If nothing else, you and Jamie were the ones who truly defeated him. And boy, did that go to his he—.”

It was Jack’s turn to punch Bunny in the face. He succeeded, but not without great effort. The rabbit stumbled, cupping his jaw and grumbling. Jack cursed. “I’m so sick of being surrounded by people who are taller than me!” Jack pulled his hair, suppressing an angry shout. His frustration had reached its limit. “You wanna know why he was so hell-bent on killing me in that battle? Pitch Black does not take being told no kindly at all!”

“What are you blabbering about now?” The rabbit worked his jaw in circles as he said this.

“Before I returned to help you guys, Pitch offered me a place at his side. He asked me to join him. But I didn’t. Even after all of you were convinced that I betrayed you, I stayed loyal to you. And right now, Pitch understands that if loyalties are tested again, I will still side with you. I’m a Guardian. I took the oath. But . . .,” he stopped. He sighed heavily, rubbing his forehead. “Pitch gives me something that none of you can afford to give me. You’re busy all the time. The few believers I have . . . well, I can’t be with them twenty-four seven. My job’s not the same as the rest of the Guardians’. It still gets pretty lonely, and the only thing worse than never having known contact with others is knowing what it’s like and not being able to get it.”

Bunny’s expression had softened a great deal, but some of his features remained hard. “But mate, this is Pitch we’re talking about. Is he even capable of—?”

“You’d be surprised. Trust me, I’ve mulled over all of what I’m telling you about a million times since he stopped the black sand. A lot of it still doesn’t make sense, so I’ve given up trying to piece it together. Could you please trust and respect me enough to take the consequences if this doesn’t work out in my favor?”

“If the world suffers those consequences, I’d be hard-pressed to forgive you.” Though it was supposed to sound harsh, Bunny’s face was devoid of harshness at this point.

Jack tried for a smile. “That makes two of us. But we defeated him once. Doing it again . . . would be rough, but not impossible.”

Bunny sighed, his muscles no longer tensed in anticipation for a fight. Jack also relaxed upon seeing this. Then Bunny pointed at him again suspiciously, “I punched his face?”

“It’s a joint-custody situation. Apparently my face is only half mine.”

“And this is supposed to be normal?”

“Look, kangaroo, how normal can you expect Pitch to act? I still have to get used to his eccentricities.”

“What exactly did you do to him in light of,” he gestured to his snowy Warren, “this?”

“I may or may not have frozen him under a bed.” Bunny looked straight in Jack’s face, and Jack was sure he was going to say something snarky. Instead, the rabbit started laughing. Loudly. Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’m glad you think that’s funny. Now that I think about it, it probably wasn’t such a good idea after all.”

“Don’t be silly! That’s brilliant!” Bunny straightened up, trying to talk through laughter. “What’s he gonna do to you when he gets out, mate?”

“If he gets out by the end of the week, he has full permission to hold me hostage until July. So if no one sees me before next month, don’t panic. I’m sure I’ll be . . . fine.” Great, now Jack was actually thinking about the possible results of Pitch freeing himself. Most of them seemed okay, unless Pitch emerged in an even worse mood than when Jack had sealed him in.

“Yeah, I’m gonna try hard not to think about that,” Bunny admitted honestly, a look of disgust crawling across his face.

“That’s probably for the best.” Jack and Bunny both looked out over the snow-covered Warren. The grass was already becoming visible through the snow. He knew that would at least make Bunny a little less unnerved. “I think the water has actually helped the river of dyes. They look a little less . . . I guess creamy. I’m a little upset I couldn’t get the snowfall to last any longer than—.”

“Just shut up.” Bunny’s voice lacked the rage it’d born before when addressing the snow in his home. Jack smiled, this time without having to try.

“Your eggs are over there somewhere, by the way.” Jack pointed to a spot on the far end of the space. “Like I said, none are harmed.”

“Much appreciated. Now get out before I throw you into the dyes.”

“No problem. And if he gets stupid and attacks because he thinks you’ve injured me again, next time you have full permission to kick his ass. Convincing all of you to chill is a lot easier than convincing him to.” Jack saw the smile Bunny was trying to hide before he left.



“Alright, Pitch,” Jack murmured as he slunk over to the bed. “I’m gonna give sleeping in your bed willingly a try for once. It’s not like you can snatch me off a limb in this state anyway.” He glanced at the icy structure that contained the Nightmare King under the bed. It didn’t look like Pitch had managed to pierce it yet, and Jack had been smart enough to make travelling by shadow as hard as possible for him. When he got closer to the bed, he could hear the muffled growls and grumbles from underneath. He wasn’t surprised to hear a loud THUNK as Pitch likely threw himself against the ice. “Don’t hurt yourself. That’s the exact opposite of the point. How’s your injury?” Jack struggled to suppress a laugh as a string of what were probably insults and threats seeped out of the Boogeyman’s prison. For once, Jack was the one winning the game of making someone shout. It felt nice. Although, he was a little uneasy about the one audible line of ‘I’ll kill you’ that he’d picked up from Pitch’s roars. Deciding not to put too much weight on the threat, he set his crook against the wall and flopped onto the bed. “Sleepy sleep, Pitch. If you manage to kill me in my sleep, I’ll try to be understanding,” he said cheerily as he got comfortable. 

He very clearly heard Pitch scream, “No, you’ll be dead!” Jack did laugh this time, his weariness getting the better of his good senses. The sound of Pitch growling in outrage was enough to lull him into a slumber.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank all of the people who commented and kudo'd. I will be posting three more things today because I wrote a lot while in the presence of non-internet owning individuals. Happy Christmas in June.


End file.
